THQ doesn’t want to do away with the pre-owned market

THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said the firm doesn’t want the pre-owned market to die, because it is something consumers demand.

Speaking with MCV, Farrell described the firm’s various second user charges as a way to deter trade-ins, not stop them all together.

“The most important thing is we have to participate in the value chain in used games,” he said. “We understand, given our focus on the gamer, that consumers like to be able to monetize their game library.

“So it is an ecosystem between publisher, gamer and retailer that just has to sort itself out. Part of it is monetizing but the bigger win is keeping our gamers engaged with DLC and robust online play, and that keeps the disc in the first purchaser’s hands.”

Farrel told Goldman Sachs earlier this year that THQ is “adjusting their business models” for new consumer experiences for not only game longevity but to also bring new people into the market.

This is done by lowering the $59.99 entry price point to $39.99 and then offering both free and paid DLC down the line, something the firm is trying out with the release of MX vs ATV: Alive this spring.

“Our main focus is to deliver these big entertainment franchises, and then leverage them across the screens to do one of two things: obviously the primary objective is making money, but the second one is that we can use Facebook, iPhone, iPad, some of these other devices, as ways to keep our customer engaged with our product and also to market to that consumer.

“What we’re thinking about those new markets is if we create great entertainment – and we’ve been doing this for 20 years – we need to be platform agnostic and figure out where’s the business opportunity for a particular consumer on a particular platform.”